Ceviche with leche de tigre is served at Lido Bottle Works, Newport Beach. Guests can dine al fresco style on stretchy black-roped chairs at the water front Lido Marina Village eatery. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Thin, delicate yucca chips are fried in a canola and olive oil mix and seasoned at Lido Bottle Works, a Portland-inspired tapas eatery. The waterfront Lido Marina Village eatery’s goal is to “bring global flavors to the table with a local emphasis,” according to executive chef Joel Harrington. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A small culinary garden sprouts and borders the patio at Lido Bottle Works, Newport Beach. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Succulents and stems sit on the pass through bar at Lido Bottle Works, Newport Beach. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Diners overlook the water and yachts at Newport Beach’s Lido Bottle Works. The eatery is one of a handful of restaurants which include LÕIsoletta, Zinque and Nobu at the revamped Lido Marina Village. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)

A trio of pork belly bao buns with Togarashi (Japanese for chiles) egg and radishes is part of Lido Bottle Works shared plate menu in Newport Beach. (Photo by Cindy Yamanaka, Orange County Register/SCNG)

Huge yachts gently sway in the harbor, moored to the docks directly in front of Lido Bottle Works, a pub-like restaurant that opened in May at Lido Marina Village.

It’s a quaint space with barely enough seats inside for about 30 diners. The patio doubles the capacity.

The dining room inside is charming. Wood paneling darkens the walls. A long banquette runs from one end to the other. Tabletops appear to be cut from a single tree, ultra-thick and rough-hewn around the edges. They are beautiful but terribly inefficient. The tables, all spacious four-tops, don’t allow the restaurant much flexibility for seating couples or groups larger than four. Couples are often forced to sit at the bar or a communal table, on stools with no backs, while the dining room feels half-empty.

The name Bottle Works is somewhat misleading. The restaurant has a retail permit to sell beer and wine, but the selection is incredibly limited, even for a restaurant, so to call it a bottle shop is a stretch. More to the point, there’s no actual “shop” or even a market-like shelf to showcase the product to the customer. There is merely a refrigerator at the back of the restaurant that is used by the kitchen and bar staffs. In theory, a customer could help himself to the fridge, pay at the bar and be on their way. But that would be really weird in this setting. No one has ever actually done it, I’m told. That said, although the beer and wine selection is limited (more beer than wine), what’s available is indeed smartly curated. You can drink very well here. You just can’t be too picky.

You can eat well, too. After five visits, though, I’ve come away with the impression that the owners or management don’t have very deep experience running an upscale restaurant.

The chef, however, does. He is Joel Harrington, a bit of a nomad who spent seven years at various Ritz-Carltons, including a stint at Ritz-Carlton Laguna Niguel. He also cooked with Marcus Samuelsson in New York, Stephan Pyles in Dallas and Richard Sandoval in Colorado, three incredible chefs. It’s no surprise that their protégé’s cooking is, at times, refreshingly original.

You’ll want to focus on fish, much of which comes from the nearby Dory fishermen.The rockfish ceviche is superb, and the tuna tartare is outstanding despite a gimmicky sprinkling of Pop Rocks.

On one visit, the daily catch is black bass, which is sublime, casually sauteed and paired with an extra-fancy riff on tartar sauce. It was one of the single best things I ate last month.

Another night, when I inquire about the daily catch, the waiter replies, “Halibut in a light curry sauce. It’s incredible.”

The fish arrives in a bowl with mussels, clams and shrimp, almost like some sort of Southeast Asian bouillabaisse. Mere halibut in a light curry sauce this is not. It’s a good thing I’m not allergic nor averse to shellfish. The flavors are wonderful. I devour every bite, even though the fish itself is woefully overcooked.

There’s an interesting salad of romaine lettuce with a dressing made from almond butter. And there’s a beautiful dish of cauliflower, a few florets of varying colors, plus raisins and mushrooms artfully encircling an otherwise empty plate. The flavors, once again, are stunning. But so is the price: $18 for what amounts to a quarter cup of cauliflower. I can’t figure out why this dish costs so much more than the rockfish ceviche or short-rib croquettes. Are the golden raisins made with real gold? Are the trumpet mushrooms foraged by special gnomes? I don’t get it.

Speaking of splurge, there’s a huge ribeye steak for two, priced at merely $57, which is actually a great deal for such a nice piece of meat. Too bad it’s presented with a cheap, flimsy steak knife that feels like it came from the 99 Cents Store, two for a dollar. It’s served with delicious fingerling potatoes and a less enthralling, too-thick-and-pasty leek mash.

The one dish too creative for its own good is the burrata and beets. To start, it’s not a pretty dish, an anomaly here. Moreover, it is simply one of the worst things I’ve ever eaten. The beets are grated into chewy strands, like a bird’s nest, and paired with raw, bitter almonds. I appreciate the ingenuity, but this just isn’t a good dish.

Fortunately there are plenty others to enjoy. The chicken wings are very good. The pork belly bao, too. And the lamb chops are big, meaty slabs with full-grown lamb flavor. At lunchtime, there’s a nice little steak frites, a hanger steak, topped with compound butter and served with intensely seasoned fries. I wouldn’t put the fries in a Top 10 list, or even a Top 20, but I do love the seasoning, which makes these fries an absolute joy to nibble.

They clearly have a lot of kinks to work out still. But I do look forward to watching this place grow.

James Beard Award-winning restaurant critic Brad A. Johnson has been writing about food for more than 20 years. A prolific traveler who has dined around the world, he joined the Orange County Register in 2012 to help readers find the best steaks, the strongest margaritas, the freshest sushi, the hottest Thai curries and more. Brad dines incognito and pulls no punches. Although he has yet to find a local restaurant to merit a perfect four-star rating, he remains ever hopeful as the quest continues.

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